The stench of blood and rot clung to the air like a living thing thick, oily, and foul enough to choke. Every breath Kael took dragged the rancid scent deeper into his lungs, searing his throat like acid. Somewhere beyond the suffocating blackness, something screamed. A high-pitched, wet wail, abruptly cut off. The sound echoed off stone walls, bouncing through unseen corridors before dying into silence.
Kael opened his eyes.
Darkness greeted him. Then cold. And pain sharp and immediate, radiating from every joint and bone like fire licking up his nerves.
Then
[Ascension Protocol initializing…]
[Host vital signs unstable. Cognitive function at 32%...]
[Searching for host compatibility… complete.]
A pale blue glow pulsed faintly behind his eyelids. For a moment, he wasn't sure if it was real or imagined an afterimage, a hallucination conjured by pain and confusion. But it stayed.
He groaned, his voice raw, unfamiliar. "Where… the hell am I?"
His throat felt like it had been scraped raw with broken glass. Each syllable came with effort, dry and ragged.
He tried to move. A mistake.
Pain lanced through his arms and legs, as if someone had hammered nails into his joints. Metal clinked a sharp, rasping noise. Shackles. Cold, rusted iron bound his wrists and ankles to a slab of stone beneath him. He strained, testing them, but his muscles if they could still be called that were weak, withered. Starved. He felt… smaller somehow. Younger.
A sudden memory exploded through his mind, vivid and violent.
Flames. Screams. A battlefield slick with blood. A sword his sword driven through his chest.
He gasped.
"I… I remember dying."
The words hung in the air, fragile and impossible. His voice trembled with disbelief, horror barely kept at bay.
And yet, here he was. Awake. A prisoner. Alive.
Or something close to it.
[Rebirth acknowledged. Reincarnation Protocol: Phase 1 completed.]
[You have been chosen by the Ascension Protocol.]
A thin, translucent UI hovered above him, sharp-edged and crystalline in appearance. The interface was alien nothing like the world he'd come from. His homeland had known swords and bows, not glowing interfaces and digital voices.
"What the hell is the Ascension Protocol?" he croaked.
[Survive. Evolve. Ascend.]
[Objectives will be assigned based on host behavior.]
[WARNING: This world is classified as Tier 9 Ultra-Hostile Environment.]
[Initiating Neural Synchronization…]
He didn't even have time to brace.
Pain exploded inside his skull. Not just a headache a full-body, soul-deep agony. Like someone had jammed hot knives into his brain and twisted. He screamed, thrashing against the chains as electricity or something like it flooded his nervous system. His back arched violently. The stone beneath him cracked.
[Synchronization complete. Basic protocol menu unlocked.]
Kael collapsed back, gasping like a fish out of water. Sweat poured from his skin, drenching the stone slab. His hands trembled.
"What… kind of nightmare is this?" he whispered.
A deep creaking interrupted him. A door. Metal scraping against stone.
Footsteps. Four of them. Heavy. Deliberate.
The stink grew stronger. Rotting meat. Wet fur. Decay layered upon decay.
From the shadows, a creature emerged.
It might've once resembled a dog. Now, it was something else a hound-shaped abomination. Bone spikes jutted from its spine like spears. Its skin was raw and split in places, stitched together with crude leather cords. Its eyes glowed a dull, malignant red.
Behind it, two men entered the chamber. Both wore crude patchwork armor rusted steel, mismatched leathers, and blood-stained tunics. They shoved the metal gate shut behind them.
One of them grinned, yellow teeth flashing. "Got a new toy for you, Bonejaw."
Kael's heart pounded. He pulled instinctively against the chains but they were already retracting. With a grinding hiss, the shackles clicked open, melting into the slab and vanishing.
He was free.
But he couldn't stand.
His limbs were jelly, barely able to support his weight. He managed to sit up, groaning. His stomach was hollow, as though it hadn't known food in days maybe weeks.
The beast Bonejaw growled. Drool sizzled as it splattered on the stone floor.
[Host life signs critical. Initiating emergency power authorization...]
[Skill unlocked: Shadow Core (Tier 0)]
[Ability: Shadow Feed Absorb residual shadow energy from corpses to recover HP and energy.]
[Cooldown: 10 minutes]
[Kill to survive.]
The words struck him like a slap. "Kill to survive," he whispered, heart sinking.
Bonejaw lunged.
Kael rolled to the side, barely avoiding the claws that tore through where he'd been a moment before. A sharp pain flared in his ribs claws had grazed him. Not deep, but fast. Too fast.
He needed a weapon. Anything.
His fingers closed around something cold. A length of rusted chain, likely left from another prisoner's restraints. He didn't think just moved.
[Adrenal Response Active: +25% reaction speed for 10 seconds.]
Kael twisted, bringing the chain in a wide arc. It struck the beast across the jaw with a metallic crack. The creature snarled, stumbling back, more stunned than wounded.
His gaze darted to the far corner. A corpse. Half-eaten, slumped against the wall. Limbs twisted, eyes wide open in a frozen expression of terror.
But the shadow beneath it… it moved. Twitched. Shifted unnaturally.
[Shadow signature detected in environment.]
[Absorb shadow energy?]
[Confirm: Y/N]
"Yes!" Kael shouted, not caring if it was real, if it would damn him.
Cold surged through him. Inky tendrils of black energy tore from the corpse, coiling through the air and diving into his chest. He shuddered violently as strength returned partial, imperfect, but real.
[Shadow Feed successful. HP restored. Energy increased.]
[New ability fragment detected: Shadow Step (locked)]
Bonejaw didn't wait.
It charged again.
But Kael was ready.
He moved with speed he hadn't possessed moments before, sidestepping the lunge. As the beast barreled past, he leapt onto its back, wrapping the chain around its throat and yanking with all his might.
Bonejaw thrashed. Its claws tore into his leg, raking deep. But Kael didn't stop. Rage poured through him. Desperation. Something primal.
[Pain threshold exceeded. Berserk impulse triggered.]
He roared a sound not entirely human and slammed his knee into its jaw. Again. And again. He dragged it to the ground, pounding it into the stone floor until its skull split and the light in its eyes went dark.
[Target eliminated.]
[You have gained 25 EXP. Shadow Core strengthened.]
[New Trait: Blood Resilience acquired.]
Silence returned. Heavy. Oppressive.
Kael collapsed beside the corpse, bloodied and shaking. His breathing came in ragged gasps, chest heaving. His vision swam.
He stared at his trembling hands slick with blood, both his and the creature's.
[Congratulations. You have survived your first trial.]
The glowing screen dimmed, then vanished.
The door creaked again.
This time, it wasn't another beast.
It was a girl.
She shuffled in, her bare feet dragging against the stone. Shackles clinked with every step. She wore only rags, thin and filthy. Bruises mottled her arms and face. Her eyes, wide and gray, fixed on him then on the twitching corpse of Bonejaw.
She spoke in a whisper. "You killed Bonejaw… without a weapon?"
Kael didn't answer. Couldn't. He was staring at the screen again as it returned with new lines of glowing data.
[Protocol Expansion unlocked.]
[New Objective: Escape the Slave Pits (0/1)]
And beneath that, flashing in angry red:
[WARNING: You are being watched.]
Kael looked up.
In the ceiling's corner, nestled among cracks and shadow, a small black orb blinked. Faintly purple. Almost invisible unless you were looking for it.
A chill crawled down his spine.
A voice echoed in his mind cold, inhuman.
"Subject is viable. Begin Phase Two."